Blood Pressure/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby A robot, Moby, squeezes a pressure gauge on a blood pressure cuff as he checks a boy, Tim's, blood pressure. TIM: Ow, that's too tight. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You relax. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what is high blood pressure? From, Eileen. An image shows a human heart. TIM: Well your heart contracts and relaxes when it pumps blood through your body. An animation shows a human heart pumping inside a body. TIM: This forces blood through your arteries. Blood pressure is the force exerted by the blood on the walls of these blood vessels. An animation shows blood flowing through arteries. TIM: Pressure waves are started by the heart's pumping action. An animation illustrates pressure waves within the body. TIM: You can feel them at the wrists and at other points where arteries lie near the surface of the body. An animation shows the points on the wrists and sides of the neck. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Yeah, these are places where you can take your pulse. Blood pressure is highest during the first part of the heartbeat, when the heart contracts and pushes blood into the arteries. This is called systolic blood pressure. The animation shows blood pushing out of the heart into the arteries. Arrows show that the blood pushes against the walls of the artery, creating systolic blood pressure. TIM: On the second half of the heartbeat, the heart relaxes and fills with blood. An image shows the heart full of blood. TIM: The pressure here is at its lowest and this is called diastolic blood pressure. An image shows the diastolic blood pressure when the heart is resting between beats. Next, there are a series of animations showing the blood exiting the heart as systolic pressure and entering the heart as diastolic pressure. TIM: Blood pressure is read as systolic over diastolic, like 120 over 80. An animation shows a blood pressure reading of 120 over 80. TIM: Normal blood pressure levels are between 100 and 139 for systolic and 80 and 89 for diastolic. Moby takes his own blood pressure. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Over the course of a day, your blood pressure rises and falls. It's usually lowest when you're resting. Tim is sleeping in his bed. TIM: Types of stress like exercise, fear, excitement, or sudden cold will all raise your blood pressure temporarily. The word stress appears and then animations of Tim in stressful situations like exercising, being scared, showing excitement, and feeling cold. TIM: Any time your heart has to work harder to pump blood faster, your blood pressure rises. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, having high blood pressure all the time is actually a condition called hypertension. When the arteries narrow or constrict, it takes more effort to pump blood through. An animation shows blood flowing through narrow arteries. TIM: Artery constriction and hypertension can happen for several reasons: getting older, An image shows faces of elderly people. TIM: being overweight, An image shows feet standing on a scale. TIM: or smoking. An image shows a cigarette with a skull on it. TIM: And high blood pressure can also be hereditary. Tim stands next to his father. TIM: Hypertension can lead to serious problems like heart disease, strokes, and kidney failure. Images shows a heart, brain, and kidney and where they are located in the body. TIM: But doctors know plenty of ways to treat hypertension like getting regular exercise, low sodium or low fat diets, reducing stress, and medication. The term "treatments" is shown, then images illustrate the remedies Tim lists. TIM: It's a good idea to keep track of your blood pressure no matter how old you are. Moby pumps the pressure gauge on the blood pressure machine. TIM: So what is it, what's my blood pressure? Moby frowns. MOBY: Beep. Moby covers his mouth and cries. MOBY: Beep. Beep. Beep. TIM: What? That's impossible. Moby waves his arms up in the air. MOBY: Beep! Beep! TIM: It's 115 over 80, not 80 over 115. MOBY: Beep! Moby smiles and dances. TIM: Hey, maybe we should check your blood pressure. MOBY: Beep!Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Health Transcripts